LAVINIA'S RECLAIM LIFE ROAD TRIP - THE SECOND HALF 30th Apr 2026

Sunday 19th April, nine days into Lavinia's Road Trip, saw us leaving Blackpool on the leg North over the border at Gretna to Dumfries in Scotland. Lavinia was still running rough every 30 miles or so and Paul had to reset the points and condenser.

Monday 20th was the 180-mile leg to Fort William. There was still some sporadic hesitancy with Lavinia's running which concerned us. As we came out of the Hotel round the corner came the familiar face of TOC Member, Martin Lawrie. He had seen on the internet that we were having some points and ignition problems so had come across 40 miles from his home, with spare points etc, and a lot of experience to see if he could help. Martin and Paul tinkered about, still not achieving perfection when, with the bonnet down and from 10 feet away, Martin could hear that something was sparking. Sure enough, on close examination, faint blue sparks could be seen from the body of the new condenser which was not sufficiently earthed. A two-minute fix with a bit of spare wire and Lavinia was singing like a bird.  And this is what she continued to do to the end of the road trip. Martin led us out of the town and we proceeded, in glorious weather round Glasgow, along the shores of Loch Lomond, Loch Ness, through the Glen Coe pass and along Loch Linne on the scenic route to Ullapool where we arrived at around 4pm, booked into the excellent Old Surgery guest house and had a meal ready for a Reclaim Life presentation to the Rotary Club.

Tuesday 21st. Yesterday had been a long drive and we were advised by locals that, due to distance and single-track road conditions we should not go around the top of Scotland to Wick. but go East across to Lairg.  Although Paul tried always to warm Lavinia up for at least 20 minutes before setting off, her performance kept improving until the engine got really hot, so she grunted a bit on the steep climb up out of Ullapool. Going across to Lairg still involved 40 miles of single-track roads and we were warned by the natives to stay out of the way of the big lumber carrying artics that charged along these roads and did not give way to anyone. From Lairg we continued East on the A839 to the A9 coastal road and turned North up to Wick where diversions were in place to facilitate moving the 73-metre Chinese wind turbine blades being offloaded in the harbour.

Thursday 23rd. Fabulous weather for Lavinia's drive South along the coastal A9, one of the world’s most scenic coastal drives. Turning East at Inverness to our stop at Elgin where we have been invited by petrolhead and Reverend, Ian Murray, to view some of his collection which included a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, a Rolls Royce 20/25, Austin Chummy, and 1920's Sunbeam. He drives the Rolls on all his journeys when he is acting in his role as Church buildings surveyor for all of Northern Scotland including the Islands.  

Friday 24th. To Dundee, Lavinia enjoying herself as usual. The further we go, the better she seems to perform. Hotels have been chosen by the cheapest that have safe parking for Lavinia. We are at the best Western Queens Hotel which we read from the plaque in the foyer was the hotel that Winston Churchill stayed at often when he was MP for Dundee 1908 -1922.

Saturday 25th. Going to take it easier this weekend so a short haul South to Edinburgh. We cross the Firth of Forth on the Queensferry Bridge with views of the iconic Forth railway bridge on our left.  

Sunday 26th.  Another easy drive to Berwick-upon-Tweed. A very interesting harbour town, which has a violent history, being sometimes in England and sometimes in Scotland. The Tweed was a major salmon river and in days gone by the fishermen would store 2000 tonnes of ice in the winter in caves dug into the rock to use for refrigerating the salmon and transporting by boat down to London. Here we had our greatest success with our Reclaim Life presentations having five interested people in the audience determined to start a group in Berwick.

Monday 27th. 151 miles today to Scarborough. Our route takes us on the A170 but, before that, we come to the infamous extremely steep Sutton Bank, climbing up and over a peninsula of the North York moors. The road climbs160 metres in less than a mile with the steepest gradient being 29% and a dramatic hairpin bend. Around 120 large vehicles get stuck on the hill each year, requiring police intervention and caravans are banned by law from using the road.  Lavinia took it all in her stride.  So onwards towards Pickering and ‘Bangers and Cash’ country.  We called in at Matthewson's 3 new units in Pickering and spoke to Paul and his son and took a photo of Lavinia in front their sign. Then on to Thornton-le-Dale where the original auction house is now a museum and here we were lucky enough to find Derek sitting there having a cup of tea. He was greatly impressed that Lavinia had made it smoothly over Sutton Bank saying that it killed a lot of cars. He also took an interest in the Charity Road Trip and has followed us on Facebook.  As a bonus, Mathewson's give the proceeds of their auction admissions to charities and Derek has promised to put us on the list.

Tuesday 28th. An early morning start as we need to drive the 157 miles to Hunstanton by mid-day as Lavinia has  council permission to park by the bandstand for the afternoon. Making good time we are crossing the Humber Bridge at 8.15 and parked on the green at Hunstanton soon after mid-day where we are joined by TOC members Neil and Caz Collins, Ian Potts, and Dick Campbell to make up an impressive line-up of Talbots. We are kindly hosted for the night by Neil and Caz and enjoy a meal out with them in Downham Market, visiting the Crown Hotel, the watering hole of the Pathfinder Squadron 635 in WW2.

Wednesday 28th. On the road to Burnham on Crouch near Southend, where we are staying at the Royal Burnham Yacht Club and holding a presentation at the Mayland Sea Bay Yacht Club in the evening which had our biggest audience of over 25 people.

Thursday 30th.  We are on our last leg home to Leighton Buzzard, with a very pleasant lunch break, meeting up with TOC member Martin Brazill.  We arrive back home and have a wash and brush-up before driving down Leighton Buzzard High Street to be cheered by a welcome party outside the Black Lion, including the Mayor and Justin Dealey from Three Counties Radio.  Time for a celebration drink. It seemed a long while since our start at the splendid TOC lunch at Barlby Road.

It was quite an experience. We have done a lot of miles (I can’t be exact as the speedo broke in the first hour of the trip!) and only two days of rain in the whole trip. We met a lot of lovely people, saw a lot of impressive scenery, made lots of social media posts and raised the awareness of Reclaim Life and Talbot cars. We showed the world that a vintage car can keep up with the moderns and raised just over £8000 for the Charity.

The star of the show has to be Lavinia, the 100-year old Talbot 14/45 who has completed nearly 3000 miles of Paul's vigorous driving with only a condenser and points needed, and no cooling issues; in fact, the hotter she got, the better she ran. 

A sincere thanks to the TOC and all Members who have supported Lavinia's Road Trip.   

Harry Sear